Dame Rosalind Savill retires as Director of the Wallace Collection, after 37 years at the museum. She joined the Wallace Collection from the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1974 and published her seminal three-volume work, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain in 1988, before becoming Director in 1992.

In her time at the Collection, Dame Rosalind completed the transformation of the twelve rooms now filled with eighteenth-century French works of art. She was also the driving force behind the Centenary Project, which she devised to give 30% more visitor space by glazing the Courtyard and excavating the basement. These new spaces provide an active Education Studio, Conservation Gallery, Reserve Collection Gallery, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, a Visitors’ Library, a Meeting Room and a Lecture Theatre and are crowned by the Wallace Restaurant in the elegant and airy Courtyard.

Sir John Ritblat, Chairman of the Trustees, said that ‘the Wallace Collection would miss her vibrant, stimulating personality coupled with her wide intellectual, curatorial knowledge. She has helped transform and enhance the beauty of Hertford House such that the visitor can enjoy and appreciate the wonderful works of art belonging to the nation in a more fulfilling and inspiring way than ever before.’